Karoly Than (1834-19081, Founder of Modern Hungarian chemistry George 6. Kautfman California State University, Fresno, Fresno, CA 93740 OnDecember 20,1984, aMemorial Session of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Chemistry Section was held in Budapest to honor the 150th anniversary of the birth of Kdroly Than' ( I ) , the founder of modern Hungarian chemistry.2 In view of his more than half a century of pioneering contributions to science and science education in Hungary as well as to chemistry in general, i t is surprising that he remains virtually unknown in English-speaking countries. In this article we shall briefly discuss Than's life and some of his major discoveries. Llfe ( 1-3) Anton Kboly Than (Fig. l), the third son of J h o s Than, an estate manager, and his wife Ottilia (nBe PetBny), was born on December 20,1834, in Obecse, Hungary (now BeEej, in northeastern Yugoslavia). His older brother Mor became a well-known oainter. In 1849. a t the are of 15. Than inter~rm~ rupted his education to enlist & the ~ u n ~ a r i a n during the war of independence (1848-1849) from the Austrian Empire. When he returned home a t t h e end of the war (1849). he found his mother dead and his father ruined financially. To earn money he became apprenticed to pharmacists in several Hungarian towns while attending school. One of these helped him to complete-his secondary school studies in 1855 a t Szeged. Aided by a scholarship, Than immediately began to study pharmacy in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna. but the followina vear he switched to the Facultv of ~ i b e r a l ~ rint sorder tosFudy chemistry. In 1858 he obtaihed his doctorate under the oreanic chemist J o s e ~ hRedtenbacher (1810-1870). ~ ~ o v e r n m esubsidy nt him to spend a Wanderjahr studying under Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811-1899) in Heidelberg and under Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817-1884) in Paris, where he met the leading French chemists. Returning to Vienna in 1859, he became an assistant in Redtenbacher's laboratory and a Priuat-Dozent (unsalaried lecturer) at the university. By 1860 Hungarian was reintroduced as the language of instruction in Hungarian universities. Because Theodor Wertheim (1820-1864), Professor of Chemistry a t the University of Budapest since 1853. was an Austrian and did not have
